Chantek was being treated for progressive heart disease, Zoo Atlanta said An orangutan who was one of the first apes to learn sign language has died in Atlanta, Georgia, aged 39. Chantek lived ...

and by this point the primates have evolved from using sign language to having a robust spoken language. "They’re speaking ...

This suggests that the capacity to decompose events evolved first, and that it provides a cognitive foundation for language. Like many animals, apes clearly communicate with one another ...

Marcus Perlman, a linguist, who studied Koko as part of his research into ape communication, weighed in. Gerardo Ortega, a sign language researcher, said Koko never mastered sign language.